5 Days in Florianópolis

Jurerê is a story about planning. For most of the 20th century the shore here was a stretch of common land used by a few fishing families. In the late 1970s a developer bought most of it and launched Jurerê Internacional, inaugurated in November 1980, with a master plan, low density and its own services. It's now the island's money beach, with villas, luxury hotels and beach clubs, and in January it fills with Brazilians and Argentines.

The beach itself is the reason to start here. It faces the north bay, so the water is sheltered, shallow and with small waves, and guides call it a giant natural pool. Come in the morning, when the clubs are still setting up, and walk the sand toward the fort end. Take a spot on the free sand rather than a club lounger unless you want the party. In late October the sea is around 21°C by monthly averages: fresh, but fine for a swim, and this is the safest water of the trip. Lifeguard posts run on a summer schedule (see the beach safety tip), so in October swim in the calm bay and not far out.

A five-minute drive west is Praia do Forte and, on a hill above it, one of the island's four 18th-century forts. São José da Ponta Grossa was designed by Brigadier José da Silva Pais, the first governor of the captaincy, and built by enslaved labor around 1740 as one of the points of a defensive triangle at the mouth of the north bay, with the Santa Cruz fortress on Anhatomirim island and the one on Ratones. The idea was to keep Spain out of the island.

Walk the walls and spend most of your time at the parapet, which looks over the bay toward Anhatomirim and the mainland. The University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) runs the fortress; it's normally open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30 to 18:30.

Sambaqui is the first village on the way down the west coast, less than half an hour from the fort, and part of the Santo Antônio de Lisboa district. The stretch from here to Santo Antônio has a large concentration of seafood restaurants, where families come from the rest of the island for long weekend lunches.

Order what the place does best: fish, shrimp, or oysters from the bay. Eat late, after 1pm, and look at what the tables around you are sharing.

Santo Antônio de Lisboa is the best-preserved Azorean village on the island. It was created by a royal provision of 26 October 1751, under the name of Nossa Senhora das Necessidades, and still has its Azorean-style houses, a parish church and a waterfront lined with seafood restaurants.

Walk the church square first, then the shore road. The village is small and the point is the pace: this is a walk, a coffee, and a look at the water. A path runs along the bay toward Sambaqui if you want to stretch your legs.

Santo Antônio de Lisboa sits on the west side of the island, so the sun sets over the bay and the mainland hills, the opposite of the Atlantic beaches. Pick a table facing the water about an hour before dusk, and do nothing.

This is also the cheapest and easiest way to understand the geography. Everything you see in front of you is the north bay, protected from the open ocean by the island itself, which is why the water is so still.

Finish with oysters, since Santa Catarina grows nearly all of Brazil's farmed ones and the island's bays are the center of it. The villages along the coast sell them in every form: raw (in natura), gratinated or steamed (ao bafo). Ask for a mix and try each.

Be a little careful. Order raw oysters only from places that buy from a farm and look busy, and skip them if you have a sensitive stomach.

The dunes behind Joaquina beach are the island's best-known landscape and part of the Lagoa da Conceição Dunes municipal natural park, a protected area of about 707 hectares. Joaquina itself is 3 km of open-ocean beach and a famous surf spot, which was shown on old maps under a different name, Praia do Campeche, until the 1970s.

Sandboarding is the thing to do. Rent a board at one of the stands at the foot of the dunes (they quote roughly R$ 30-50 an hour, a bit less for a basic one), climb up the dune with it under your arm, and slide down. It takes five minutes to get the idea and it's much harder work walking up than going down. If you'd rather just walk, the shifting ripples and dune lakes are worth the sand in your shoes.

A few minutes north, Praia Mole is a 960 m open-sea beach between two hills, named for its soft sand. It's the stylish beach of the east: surfers, bars along the shore with live music, paragliders launching from the hill above, and one of the island's best-known LGBT beaches.

The water is cold and the waves are real, so swim between the flags and keep an eye on the rip currents. Walk to either end for the best views, then have a drink in one of the bars before you go.

Galheta is the beach you can't drive to. It's reached only on foot, by an easy trail from the end of Mole over a rocky headland, or from the Barra da Lagoa canal, and it's part of a municipal park with no beach bars or toilets. That's the point.

It has long had a reputation as the island's naturist beach, although the city council banned nudity there in 2016, and it's still quiet and wild. Bring water and food, swim carefully, and don't expect lifeguards.

Barra da Lagoa is a fishing village on the canal that connects the lagoon to the Atlantic. It was cut off from the rest of the island by the lagoon, the Galheta hill and the Rio Vermelho park for decades, and it still feels like a village with summer houses added around it. The canal and its boats are the centre of it, and the fishermen still pull their nets onto the small beach in the mullet season.

Walk the canal, look at the boats, and decide if you want a late lunch here. If you have kids or an interest in turtles, the Projeto Tamar sea turtle centre is on this side of the village. It's open Wednesday to Monday, 9:30 to 17:00, and a full ticket is about R$ 44 (8 EUR).

The lagoon is the middle of the island. It's shallow, ringed by hills, dunes and the sea, and windy enough to be a world-class windsurfing and kitesurfing spot. The Centrinho, the village around the bridge, is where a large share of the island's bars and clubs are, and Avenida das Rendeiras, the road along the shore, runs to Joaquina, Mole and Barra da Lagoa.

Walk the Centrinho and the lakeside as the light goes, then pick a table. The area is the island's nightlife centre outside summer: when the beaches empty in winter, the bars here stay open.

The island's signature meal is the sequência de camarão, a fixed-price run of shrimp dishes brought to the table one after another. It usually starts with a salad and fish fritters, then breaded shrimp, shrimp in garlic and oil, steamed shrimp and a fish fillet with shrimp sauce, rice and potatoes. Nobody has documented where it started, but researchers link it to the Lagoa da Conceição area, and it's now a Florianópolis trademark.

The restaurants along the Rendeiras shore all do it, so pick whichever one is busy with local families. Go hungry, take your time, and share a caipirinha or a cold beer. It's a lot of shrimp.

Pântano do Sul is the fishing village at the far south-east of the island. The district was created in 1966, the beach is fine sand, and it's one of the typical old fishing colonies of Florianópolis, with a number of seafood restaurants.

Park near the beach, look at the boats, and walk to the start of the Lagoinha trail. You'll come back here for lunch.

Lagoinha do Leste is a beach and an S-shaped lagoon between the mountains and the Atlantic, and you can reach it only by boat or on foot. The shortest way starts in Pântano do Sul on Rua Manoel Pedro Oliveira and is about 2.2 km, around an hour each way, with a long steep climb over rocks and roots. The longer, gentler way starts from Matadeiro (almost 6 km, at least two hours).

The pay-off is a long empty beach, a lagoon behind it and almost no phone signal. Take more water than you think you need, shoes with good grip and an offline map. If your knees are tired on the way back, boats run from the beach to Pântano do Sul (about R$ 25 reported for the return leg, roughly half an hour).

Back in the village, eat where the fishermen's families eat: the waterfront restaurants by the beach all sell the day's catch. Pick one that is full at 1pm and has a short menu.

Go for grilled fish, a fish moqueca or shrimp in a pumpkin (camarão na moranga). Grilled mullet (tainha) is a winter dish, so in October it's a bonus, not a given.

Ribeirão da Ilha is on the sheltered west coast, about 20 minutes' drive from Pântano do Sul. It's one of the oldest Azorean settlements on the island, founded in the mid-18th century, and its historic centre is a row of low colonial houses along the road and the church of Nossa Senhora da Lapa, inaugurated in 1806. The stone church was built by local landowners and enslaved workers.

Walk the small centre and the church square, then follow the road along the water. Ribeirão is the island's oyster country: the farms are in the bay and the restaurants are along the shore.

Santa Catarina grows nearly all of Brazil's farmed oysters, and Florianópolis is the biggest hub. The Pacific oyster came out of research at the federal university (UFSC), and Ribeirão da Ilha is the island's best-known oyster district, with restaurants often run by farming families. A marine heatwave in summer 2026 killed up to 90% of the oysters on some farms, so ask what's available.

Ostradamus, in a former car workshop on the main road, is the name most guides give. It began as a juice stand, added oysters in 1998 and purifies them on site with ultraviolet light. Order a mixed plate of raw, gratinated and steamed oysters, with a cold pilsen or a dry white wine.

Ribeirão da Ilha faces west, and the local tourism name for the shoreline road is the sunset gastronomic route (Rota Gastronômica do Sol Poente). That's the reason to be here in the late afternoon: the bay turns orange and the mainland hills turn dark.

Stay at your table until the light has gone, then drive back. The road to the east side takes about 25 minutes without traffic.

Campeche Island is a 62-hectare island, about 1.6 km east of Campeche beach, and one of the most protected places in Florianópolis. It has a single beach, on its west side, and an exceptional archaeological collection, rock engravings and stone workshops dated to between 5000 and 3500 BC, which the national heritage institute (IPHAN) protects. In 2025 the city declared the island a municipal natural monument.

The quota is the thing to understand. IPHAN limits landings to 770 people a day from March to November and 800 from December to February, and landings are allowed only from 9am to 5pm. In the 2025/26 season the city required an individual permit issued on the Florianópolis city hall website, for R$ 15, with the daily places split between the boat associations at Armação, Campeche and Barra da Lagoa. Boat prices in early 2026 were reported at about R$ 185-250 return. Rules for the 2026/27 season weren't published when this was checked, so confirm them and book early; in summer the permits go first.

On the island the carvings are shown only on a guided trail, with an accredited monitor and a fee. They are described as the largest concentration of rock engravings and lithic workshops on the Brazilian coast, with press reports counting more than a hundred panels across about ten archaeological sites. You'll walk through coastal forest to see the images, which are figures cut into the rock, and the viewpoints.

Camping, barbecues, fires and fireworks are forbidden, and so is taking plants or animals away. Pack out everything you bring.

Armação is the beach south of Campeche where many of the island boats depart. Eat here before the drive south; the simplest option is grilled fish with rice and salad.

Keep it quick: a coxinha and an açaí from a beach kiosk will do. Every minute here is a minute off the trail.

Caieira da Barra do Sul is where the road ends at the island's southern tip, about 35 minutes by car from Armação. It's a small fishing community, and from here the trail starts for Naufragados.

Park, stretch, and set off by 2:45pm; the trail is the reason to come this far.

Naufragados ("shipwrecked") is a wild beach at the very southern tip, reachable only on foot or by boat. The usual trail from Caieira is roughly 2.5 to 3 km through Atlantic forest (sources range from 2.3 to 4 km), around 40 to 60 minutes each way. A branch to the right leads to a lighthouse and old cannon positions.

The name has an uncertain origin; one theory links it to the wreck of Portuguese ships with Azorean colonists on board in 1753. On the beach there are a few rustic bars, which may be seasonal, so bring a snack and water.

Campeche is the biggest and most urban beach district in the south of the island, and it has an unexpected history: in the 1920s a French airmail company had a landing field here for its Paris to Buenos Aires route, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is said to have rested here. The main street is named Avenida Pequeno Príncipe, after The Little Prince. The story that the name Campeche comes from his nickname for the place is a myth; the name is older and comes from a tree, the pau-campeche, that grew on the island.

Finish with dinner at a restaurant or bar here and a first caipirinha, the national cocktail of cachaça, lime and sugar. If you have the energy, walk to the beach after dinner and look at the island you visited this morning.

The Mercado Público grew out of stalls the colonial government built in the late 1700s. The first market building opened in 1851, and the present site dates from 1899, when it was moved to the shore, which is now far from the sea after the landfill. The second wing was completed in 1931 and the layout we see now dates from 1932. It burned in 1988 and again in 2005, when an electric fryer set the whole north wing alight, and a roof over the central gap was added in 2016 and is still argued about.

Arrive at about 9:30 on Saturday and wander the stalls of food, crafts and clothing. Box 32, the best-known of the box restaurants inside, opens at about 10:00, so it's a snack and a cold beer at 10:30, not breakfast; save the real meal for the per-kilo lunch below. Leave by 11:30.

Praça XV de Novembro is the old town's main square. In the middle is the Velha Figueira, a fig tree planted in the square in 1891 and mentioned in the city's anthem. Sit under it for ten minutes, because it's the best place in the centre to see the city at its normal pace.

On the square's edges are the Cathedral and the Cruz e Sousa Palace, which was the governor's residence in the 18th century and is named after the Symbolist poet Cruz e Sousa.

The Cathedral faces the square. The first church here was built by the city's founder, Francisco Dias Velho, in 1679, and he was murdered inside it. The present building was designed by Silva Pais, started in 1753 and finished in 1773, then reworked in 1922 for the centenary of independence, when the towers were changed and a neoclassical porch was added.

Look at the bells. There are seven, and the two oldest, from 1872 and 1896, were gifts from Emperor Pedro II; in 1922 the set was the biggest in Latin America. Inside, look for the sculpture group of the Flight into Egypt by the Tyrolean craftsman Ferdinand Demetz, blessed in 1902.

Have the most ordinary lunch in Brazil: a restaurante por quilo, where you fill a plate from a buffet and pay for its weight. There are several on Rua Tenente Silveira and the streets around the square.

It's honest, quick, and the best way to try the everyday side of Brazilian food, from rice and beans to grilled meat. Look for a place full of office workers at lunchtime. A pão de queijo with coffee is the usual afternoon snack.

The Hercílio Luz Bridge is the city's symbol. It was inaugurated on 13 May 1926, to replace the ferries between the island and the mainland, and was the only road link until 1975. At 821 m it's the longest suspension bridge in Brazil, held up by eyebar chains, and it was closed in 1982 after safety inspections. It reopened to pedestrians and bikes from 1988 to 1991, then stayed shut for 28 years until a restoration finished and it reopened on 30 December 2019.

Walk onto the walkway from the island side to feel the scale and look back at the city. The rules on who can use the bridge and when have changed several times since 2019, so check on the day.

The bridge sits on the west side, so the sun sets behind the mainland hills. Find a spot on the island side, near the viewpoint at the foot of the bridge, and watch the light change.

Then have dinner in the centre or on Avenida Beira-Mar Norte, a short drive along the north bay. It's a good place to say goodbye to the island, with a brigadeiro from a local sweet shop as your last taste.